When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead by Gerardo J Mercado Hernández

Author:Gerardo J Mercado Hernández
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Outland Entertainment
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Zara sat in assembly after breakfast. Staring at the stage where the headteacher stood, preparing for the morning announcements.

She had to kill her. Zara had to kill Walsh, before Walsh killed her. And William taught her exactly how.

A steel knife to the heart, wiped with the blood of one with noble intent, and blessed by the one who was blessed by the raven.

Luckily, she could do it all on her own.

“Zara!” Lily elbowed her, pulling her out of her thoughts. “How long were your outside privileges taken away for again?”

Zara responded absentmindedly. “A week.”

“A week!” Lily nudged the friends sitting next to her. “Just for getting up. Walsh is a demon I swear.”

A devil, actually. All Zara could think about was the plan she intended to put into motion that very night.

When the headteacher spoke she seemed to look straight into Zara, as if she knew what she was thinking in that exact moment.

“Not a single slip, or she will consume your soul,” William had told her.

But Zara could do it. Or she had to believe she could. She would break the cycle.

She carried that sentiment with her until the sun went down and, once again, cast Raven’s Eye in shadow. Once she was sure that everyone was asleep, she crawled quietly out of bed and pulled out a knife, which she had swiped from the kitchens, from under her pillow.

Under William’s instruction, she had already blessed it, and, with the tip, pricked her finger and wiped the blood along the blade.

Still in her socks, she padded across the hall and out of the student dorm. The teachers lived on the top floor. Zara carefully made her way, her shadow stretching in the faint lamplight as she tiptoed up the spiraling staircase, still brandishing the knife. Her breath came out in condensed puffs as she shivered. Zara didn’t know whether it was from the cold or the fear.

She emerged into the teachers’ corridor, and the shivers took over. Fear. It was definitely fear. Still, she commanded herself to move, and crept up to the room right at the end of the hall, where headteacher Walsh lay asleep.

Her heart started to thump loudly in her chest—the accompanying war drum to her endeavors. The melody to her madness. But no, this wasn’t madness. This was survival.

She took a deep breath and, ever so slowly, pushed open the door.

The room was as dark as the rest of the school, and just as cold. The headteacher’s silhouette lay sleeping, softly breathing under the blanket, a mere few feet away. So close. So vulnerable.

All confidence left her. Zara’s knees started to buckle, and her hands shook violently. She couldn’t do this. Person or not, she still looked human.

“I can’t do this.”

“Calm yourself, child. Yes, you can. It’s her or you, remember? You’re doing nothing but simply returning this creature back to Hell, where it belongs.”

“Sending it back to where it belongs,” Zara repeated aloud. The words comforted her, but her heart was beating so loudly she feared the devil would hear and wake up.

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